Xiaomi Redmi searched more than Alia, Virat, Ranbir on Google

India romances Bollywood and cricket, but that love affair has seen a strange disruption by a Chinese mobile maker. Indians searched Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 more than top trending actors and cricketers.

“What do people search more on the Google: Redmi Note 3 or Alia Bhatt?” asks Manu Jain, head of Xiaomi in India.

He doesn’t stop at that. “Let me up the game... Redmi Note 3 or Virat Kohli? What about, in comparison to Sachin Tendulkar?” Jain goes on.

One of the writers of this story made a usual guess. “Virat Kohli... Sachin Tendulkar is not in the game, anymore,” the writer said.

“If you leave the last one month, because we had no stock, and we are ramping up Redmi Note 4 -- Redmi Note 3 has search volumes every single day than Virat Kohli, Alia Bhat or Ranbir Kapoor,” pat comes Jain reply.

There is a reason why Jain is making an unlikely comparison. But in a country like India, which obsesses on Bollywood and cricket, Jain is making a statement.

Xiaomi is already the fourth largest selling smartphone maker in the country, and has crossed $1 billion in revenue. The Google trends is just an indication of Xiaomi’s growing popularity in India. That translates into sales, too. It has sold over two million phones in India since its launch.

This is the Google search trend... The blue line is Redmi Note 3, the red and yellow is Virat Kohli and Alia Bhat, almost at similar level... This is Q3 and early Q4. The bottom two lines are Ranbir Kapoor and Sachin Tendulkar,” Jain said.

Xiaomi, when it started selling smartphones in China, was often called the “Apple of China”, and since its beginning has been one of the fastest growing mobile maker in the world. In 2016, it sold 60 million devices.

“We set the trends... When Redme Note 3 launched look at all the phones that were out there. Fast forward six months, everyone was trying to follow the same phone,” said Hugo Barra, vice-president for international business, Xiaomi.

Barra understands the importance of Google’s search data. Before joining Xiaomi, he was the vice-president at Google and actively involved in its Android business.

However, search alone, and trending ahead of celebrities, doesn’t make him happy. “I think it is a consequence, why we become, why people start tracking us... We try to do a little bit more every day,” Barra said.